Tao te ching, Lao Tzu: There is a striking parallel between paradoxical nature of virtue of the Gentleman or Benevolent ruler in Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching and of Jesus Christ, the God of the Christian faith. The Tao Te Ching and the New Testament is fundamentally rooted in these paradoxical principles, namely that the weak are those who are truly strong, and that those who truly finish first are the very last of everyone. For instance Lao Tzu states in Book I that "the submissive and weak will overcome the hard and strong" (XXXVI, 79a). Moreover, he urges that a great rule to "exhibit the unadorned and embrace the uncarved block, have little thought of self and as few desires as possible" (XIX, 43a). While comparably, in the New Testament Bible it is professed that "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27), and "if anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all" (Mark 9:35). However, though there is an obvious parallel between the two works, I would argue that Lao Tzu would not go as extreme as in the New Testament as to command that a great ruler should assume the role of being the servant of all, for this would mean that a great ruler should not only be a servant to the population under his rule, but to all of mankind around the world including other kings and rulers.